McHenry County Blog

Two issues were considered for the second time at Tuesday night’s:

• slot machines at bars and restaurants in unincorporated McHenry County
• electronic billboards outside of municipalities

Also called video poker machines, the electronic devices will be allowed after a 15-9 vote.

The argument that the unincorporated bars were playing on an uneven playing field seemed to carry the day over arguments that gambling can lead to addiction that can destroy lives.

In 2009 the McHenry County Board voted 13-10-1 to prohibit the devices.

At that time rules had not been promulgated and no municipality had voted to allow them.

As Ken Koehler, maker of Tuesday’s motion put it, “It probably made sense to send a message to the rest of the County.  Now twenty [cities and villages] have [approved video gaming."

Names of the fifteen who voted in favor follow:

• Michele Aavang
• Nick Chirokos
• Sue Drafkorn
• Joe Gottemoller
• Jim Heisler
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Ken Koehler
• Bob Martens
• Mary McCann
• Mary McClellan
• Anna May Miller
• Robert Nowak
• Sandy Salgado
• Mike Skala

Those voting “No” were

• Yvonne Barnes


Bethany Lutheran Church Pastor Carrie Smith, not speaking for her church, told of how gambling had devastated her brother’s life.

• Diane Evertsen
• John Hammerand
• Donna Kurtz
• Nick Provenzano
• Carolyn Schofield
• Ersel Schuster
• Mike Walkup
• Paula Yensen

The second issue was prompted by villages not wanting electronic billboard near their municipalities.

A moratorium enacted at their request was about to expire and, according to one village’s representative, “the word on the street” was that lobbying to let the moratorium run out was heavy.

Appearing were those wishing to keep the ban on electronic billboards in unincorporated areas.

Algonquin Village President John Schmitt. He pointed out that the issue was so important to him that he was missing only is fifth meeting in twenty years of having served on his Board.

Catherine Peterson, Lakewood’s Village Manager, also weighed in asking for a continuance of the billboards’ prohibition through the summer months until the new zoning ordinance could be approved.

Also present was Lake in the Hills’ Community Development Director Dan Olson.

Despite the apprehension of village officials, the County Board approved the requested extension by voice vote. I heard no dissension.

Taxpayers complained about the golf course tax throughout the 1990′s. It was the approximately $500 a year property tax that I and other village residents paid that sensitized me to non-referendum bonds.

At a village board meeting I was told that purchasing the golf course would not cost me a dime, that fees from the golf course would pay off the loan.

In whose dreams?

Then-resident Jim Bishop warned trustees that golf courses were not doing well in McHenry County.

But, a bond salesman convinced trustees that the interest rate would be so much lower, if the village issue the revenue bonds with a general obligation back-up.

Wrong!

So, we are coming up to the last year of the bond issue and the golf business is so bad that an amount that will cost 21 cents per $100 of assessed valuation was imposed upon Lakewood taxpayers. That will raise $486,000.

“Revenue are not sufficient to pay bonds,” Village Administrator Catherine Peterson said. Staff recommends the full extension be made.

A report showed income down 11%, a bit over $100,000, through November. And, there were increased expenses—up 54% or almost $140,000. Projecting through the winter, when little revenue comes in, and the golf course will have something over $200,000 left.

Best case projection for the coming year is to break even, rather than have a profit of $150,000 seen last year.

Both figures, of course, refer to operating expenses, ignoring the repayment of the bonds, which resident users of the course and those of us who have never set foot on it must subsidize. And $50,000 of capital improvements are said to be “needed” this coming year.

The bleak conclusion from the Village Administrator:

“If the 2011-2012 golf season is similar to the current year, Redtail Golf Course will simply not have the cash reserves to operate for an entire year.”

Blame for inadequate revenue was affixed on the lack of a club house, which was said to bring in food and beverage money.

Competition from the Huntley Park District’s Pinecrest Golf Club and the re-opened Turnberry Country Club was also cited.

“Most of the other municipal courses aren’t fairing much better that we are,” Trustee Gene Furey observed.

While the rounds have remained pretty constant at 30,000 per year (plus or minus 1,500-2,000), the cost has had to be discounted because of competitive forces. Income per round is down from $41 in 2007 to an estimated $33 next year.

After looking at the figures, Trustee Blake Hobson said, “I don’t see a new building (club house).”

Never having been a fan of the golf course purchase, I asked if it couldn’t be sold.

Turnberry resident and Village President Erin Smith reminded me that the value of the homes surround the golf course would depreciate if town houses were built on the golf course.

Of course, I did not suggest that town houses be built there.

But I certainly shall object if general taxes are used to prop up the golf course after the bonds are paid off, as I have objected to the golf course tax since it was imposed in the early 1990′s.

And, if it can’t pay for its expenses, it seems to me discussion of some exit strategy is merited.

Operating a golf course is just not a core function of municipal government.

The Lakewood village board unanimously approved economic incentive and annexation ordinances that allow the $40 million, 165 acre McHenry County SportsPlex to proceed.

The result is three happy guys, Lou Tenor, EnRico Heirman and Jack Porter, plus a plethora of consultants who pretty much answered every question thrown at them.

A zoning hearing started at 6 at the Lakewood-owned Red Tail Golf Club with over 120 people in attendance at its peak.  Less than half that number lasted until the midnight hour when about ten minutes of voting approved all the paperwork.

Besides the consultants, village officials and staff, most in attendance were people objecting from the neighborhood.

Lakewood, trying to garner more revenue, has moved aggressively in the last two months to annex property along the western side of Route 47 up to the northern leg of Route 176.

Adjoining property owners are not happy.  That includes those who will be living next to baseball fields, plus those south of the area in unincorporated Colleens Cote.

Subdivision board member Peggy Keegan put it this way,

“You’re putting a ghastly complex in the middle of a corn field.  If it doesn’t succeed, you have a Motorola, you have a Sears Complex.”

“We feel all of this was done behind our backs,” Tom Balboney, also a resident from the subdivision, said.

An earlier supporter of the project had talked of his father’s having pointed to where Woodfield would be built.

Balboney said that’s why he had moved out here, to get away from places like Woodfield.

“We all feel this was done behind our backs,” he concluded.

Earlier Colleen’s Cote resident Catherine Francis had accurately observed,

Colleens Cote's Kathryn Francis told of the Blandings Turtle and blue birds she had on her property south of the property being annexed for ball fields.

“This feels to the residents as a moving train.  Suddenly you are in our back yard.  Venues could come in that would invite people that we wouldn’t want.  There has been no discussion about our safety.

“Are you telling us you want to do this to us for a half a million a year (in new revenue to Lakewood)?”

Village President Erin Smith told neighbors that their concerns would be taken into consideration.  Concerns included traffic on Hamilton and Pleasant Valley Roads, noise and light pollution.

It took two hours for the project’s consultants, choreographed by attorney Tom Zanck, to finish their testimony.

Traffic Engineer David Miller explained the new intersection that will result once Pleasant Valley Road is relocated south so it is opposite the south leg of Route 176.

No longer will motorists see a sign that asks, “got mulch?”

Once completed, there will be an elaborate entryway.

There will be ball fields all over the place.

A selling point to the proposal was its environmentally sensitive design by Jack Porter, who developed the Sanctuary of Bull Valley in the City of Woodstock.  High quality wet lands like Lighting Creek are being completely avoided.  The cold water creek, which contains the Iowa darter, a little perch, will be crossed by a boardwalk.

The boardwalk will be part of a trail system that will be available to the general public.  The

developers will charge those participating in tournaments, but don’t plan to do the same for family, friends, coaches, etc.

Porter touted the development as “an opportunity to stimulate the Northwest Quarter of the village.”

He described it as “a public-private partnership” that would never have happened without the support of Dick Durbin, Melissa Bean, Pam Althoff and the village board.

500 construction jobs will be created and under terms of the EB-5 financing, which, as former village president candidate John O’Hara put it,

“We’re selling visas to foreign residents.”

The Federally-approved financing device allows foreigners to invest $500,000 in a project like the SportsPlex and get a visa, as long as enough jobs are created.  For the amount of money involved, there must be 353 Full-Time Equivalent jobs created.

O’Hara summarized the financial arrangement like this:

“So, there’s no taxpayer risk for the EB-5 bonds, no taxpayer risk for the Recovery Zone Bonds.

“So, the only risk for the taxpayers is the off-site improvements.”

Village President Smith replied, “That’s right.”

The $18 million in county board-approved Federal stimulus bonds is being used “only as a start-up mechanism.”

It was also described as “a bridge loan.”

The off-site improvements include a promise by the village board to provide sewer and water to the property.  Current Lakewood sewer and water lines are about two miles away, so it may be cheaper to build on-site treatment and water facilities.

“The village has made a commitment to provide sewer and water,” Village Administrator Catherine Peterson explained.

A man asked why the SportsPlex was not being built on the east side of Route 47.

Porter replied there were three reasons:

• “the availability of land (on the west side of the road)”
• “it’s in the center of the county”
• “it would be in the village of Crystal Lake (if it were on the east side of Rt. 47)”

Financial information for the private enterprise was not revealed.

Stressed several times was

“This is all equity financing.”

Eventually, $36 million is being sought from E-5 financing, while $4 million in equity is being sought elsewhere.

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More illustrations here.

Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper reported it first, but he didn’t have the map you see below.

What you see in orange is the new area within McHenry County designated by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development as “Targeted Employment Area under the Alien Entrepreneur Visa Program.”

The yellow sections on the map are already so designated.

So, what does it mean?

Under the irreverently coined “buy a visa” program, foreigners with $1 million to invest in an approved job creation enterprise may obtain entry to the United States of America.

However, if the economic development occurs within a “Targeted Employment Area,” the required investment decreases to $500,000.

As you can see two townships—Riley and Chemung—previously were eligible for the smaller “entry fee.”

With the expansion of the Woodstock Greenwood Township section, whose northern edge is Ware Road (the street between the McHenry County Jail and the Administrative Building), to include the rural part of Dorr Township, Lakewood gains a potential source of investment for its part of the intersection of Routes 47 and 176. So does Woodstock as it expands southward toward Route 176.

The rural Dorr Township area was eligible because the census tract had an unemployment rate of 14.2% is 153% of the national average of 9.3%. (An area must be at least at the 150% level.)

Note that the connection is at a point. Only the edges of the census tracts touch. (See black mark on map.)

A January 6th letter from Lakewood Village President to Warren Ribley, Executive Director of the DCCA, states that “the proposed project” will employee “800 temporary and 400 permanent individuals.”

It references a January 7th letter to Village Manager Catherine Peterson from New York City attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr.

He delivers an affirmative answer as to whether the census tract can be designated a “Targeted Employment Area for EB-5 (the name of the “buy a visa” program) purposes.”

He points out his co-authorship of “Immigration Law and Procedure, the leading 20-volume immigration law treatise,” plus his teaching immigration law at Cornell Law School.

He has been a member or in a leadership position in the American Immigration Lawyers Association EB-5 Investors Committee since 1996.

And he says why this particular census tract, which contains the area proposed for the SportsPlex is eligible for a Targeted Employment Area designation.

DCCA apparently agreed with Yale-Loehr’s logic. That’s what DCCA Research Manager Edwin R. Taft’s February 16th letter indicates.

The outgoing Lakewood Village President is Julie Richardson. You see her above (second from the left). Sitting to her right is Julie Hansen, the village clerk. To her left is Village Administrator Catherine Peterson and Village Attorney Richard Flood.

For the rest of our lives, my wife and I shall be grateful for her successful effort to ban leaf burning.

We can now leave our bedroom windows open during the fall and couldn’t before.

When Richardson decided to retire, two candidates filed for office.

Former Village Trustee Erin Smith was one.

She grew up in Country Club Additions, the part of Lakewood between Crystal Lake and the Crystal Lake Country Club and Wedgewood. Smith now lives in Turnberry and has a responsible job at Motorola which allows her some flexibility to work from home some times.

She campaign hard, especially in original Lakewood. You could tell by all the signs.

The other candidate was John O’Hara, who has been involved in the zoning end of village government. I received no campaign literature from him.

I observed both at a village board meeting concerning the budget. Both asked good questions, but there was obvious posturing from both sides in front of an audience that exceeded the number of people who usually go to Crystal Lake City Council meetings.

There is continuing tension between Lakewood and Crystal Lake.

A suit over sewage treatment fee payment, which I suspect is just making the lawyers money, remains outstanding, goes on. A court settlement seems to be the only answer.

Afterward, maybe the two neighbors can move on.

The opportunity for providing more rational fire protection services exists for both municipalities, if anyone can dampen down the hostility Crystal Lake officials seem to feel when Lakewood decided it would be cheaper to create its own fire department, rather than pay for a level of fire protection that commercial and high rish Crystal Lake needs, but residential Lakewood does not.

The election is over and the results show a convincing victory for Smith.

She got 62% of the vote with O’Hara receiving 38%.

The vote totals were 434 to 268.

For banning phosphate fertilizer, the Village of Lakewood won the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County Theta Award last night at McHenry’s Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church.

Accepting the award on behalf of Village President Julie Richardson was Village Administrator Catherine Peterson. Village Clerk Janice Hansen was also in attendance.

“It’s a terrific effort that we hopes rubs off on Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills,” award presenter Dwight Dalton said.

“This ordinance is simply Lakewood’s attempt to be the most environmentally sensitive community in McHenry County and, maybe, in Northern Illinois” Peterson said.

“Our citizens have stepped up and said, ‘We understand.’

“People really want to do the right thing.”

The McHenry County Department of Transportation won the Government Award.

Mark DeVries accepted on behalf of what I’ll probably always call the “McHenry County Highway Department.”

In making the presentation, former Defenders Executive Director Cindy Skrukrud described the worldwide attention his discovery of how to diminish highway salt use by 40%.

The innovation consists of

• 85% salt water,
• 10% sugar beet juice and
• 5% calcium cloride.

“Once you become an innovator, people bring new things to you to try,” DeVries noted.

Defenders Volunteer of the Year was Huntley’s Dorothy Johnson.

How many hours did she volunteer?

About 2,000 hours.

“It’s my home away from home,” she remarked.

Ward Duel, the first Theta Award winner, was also present.

He was first Director of the McHenry County Health Department.

He has a wonderful sense of humor. In a land inventory map, he included the one nudist colony. It’s now a McHenry County Conservation District Area north of Marengo.

Having come from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, my family was astounded that McHenry County did no have a public health department until the mid-1960′s.

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On top, Dwight Dalton can be seen giving the Theta Award to Lakewood Village Administrator Catherine Peterson. Next, Cindy Skrukrud presents the award to Mark DeVries. Below super-volunteer Dorothy Johnson is recognized by Dwight Dalton.